Pumpkin Palooza

You know you are just dying to say, "Pumpkin Palooza..."

No, we didn't take a trip to the pumpkin patch, I'm just totally infatuated with all things pumpkin. Pumpkin-flavored, that is.
I do love that pumpkin ice cream from Edy's. I stirred in a handful of chopped pecans and it was absolutely wonderful.
Little Debbie is charming me with those little pumpkin snack cakes. They even have that cute little Jack-o-lantern face.
Ottis The Muffin-maker-man is my muffin hero with huge, extremely high calorie pumpkin walnut muffins.
Seeing as I'm so wild for pumpkin you might be surprised that I can't bring myself to try the pumpkin milkshakes at McDonald's. I'm not sure why. Just can't.

Here's a recipe for pumpkin cobbler that I found on a blog. I made it this morning for a church potluck and I had people begging for the recipe. I'd love to give credit for this pumpkin goodness, but I can't figure out from which cool blog I lifted this recipe. If this is your recipe please let me know, if you can tear yourself away from the cobbler pan, that is.


Pumpkin Cobbler

Preheat oven to 350 and spray a 9x13 pan.

3 eggs, beaten
15 oz can pumpkin
12 oz can evaporated milk
1/8 tsp salt
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 t ground ginger
1 T vanilla
1 boxed yellow cake mix
1 1/4 cup butter, melted
1 cup pecans, chopped

Mix the eggs, pumpkin, evaporated milk, salt, sugar, spices and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan. Pour the dry cake mix over the pumpkin mixture. Drizzle the melted butter over the cake mix. Bake for 25 minutes. Sprinkle the chopped nuts over the cobbler and bake for an additional 15 minutes.

(I adjusted the recipe just a bit... I added a bit of ground cloves to the pumpkin mixture and I found that it had to bake about another 10 minutes, so watch this while it bakes!)

And if you've managed to keep the drool off of your computer, here is another of my favorite pumpkin recipes.

Pumpkin Fluff

1 15 oz can pumpkin
1 small box of instant vanilla pudding (powder)
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 container whipped topping ("lite" works)

Mix all this stuff in a bowl and use graham cracker sticks, ginger snaps and green apple slices for "dippers."

WFMW: Hot Soup?

Now that the weather is getting cooler (in some parts of the country, anyway) I've started to serve bowls of soup for lunch and light dinners. My boys love a quick bowl of soup. In fact, they think it is a great treat to be able to pick the flavor of soup we select from the Campbell's soup rack at the grocery store. Shrek... Cars... Goldfish... Dora...

Of course, the hard part of serving soup to the under-7 crowd is the whole its-too-hot thing. Blowing on the soup really doesn't alter the temperature much and for some reason my four year old hates an ice cube floating in his soup almost as much as he dislikes a blistered lip.

One day, as I was reaching into the freezer for an ice cube to melt in his soup before he noticed, I had a moment of sheer mommy brilliance. Frozen veggies! Instead of grabbing an ice cube I grabbed a small handful of peas and carrots. I didn't add enough peas an carrots to turn the soup into vegetable soup, of course, but just enough to cool it down a bit. And what mommy doesn't like the I'm-sneaking-in-a-few-more-veggies moment?

For more great (and maybe even tasty) Works for Me Wednesday tips visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

WFMW: A Question of Prayer and Devotion...

This Wednesday I am so excited because I am actually making a WFMW post!!

This week WFMW is enjoying a bit of a twist. Instead of giving a tip that Works for Me, I am to ask for tips. I've battered my brain and now I know what you all should tell me...

How do you organize your prayer time? Now that I'm working everyday and still doing all the stuff moms do, I'm struggling to keep prayer and devotion time a priority. What works for you? Do you have any special tips for remembering what and whom to pray for? Any little "cheat sheets"? Are you keeping your devotional in the bathroom, too? ;)

Go ahead, hit me with your best prayer/devotion tip. Then go visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer to see if you can offer some other great suggestions!